June 25, 2010

Staycation with Jeremy

My vacation went like this: 2 beer festivals, 6 breweries, 1 distillery, 1 brew day, and a ton of grilling n' chilling.


It all started with the Kohler Festival of Beer. Jon and I went to the "Cheers for Beers" event at the Kohler Design Center on Saturday evening. It was beertastic! The only trouble was finding the actual bathroom... The following night, I went to the "Blues, Brews, and BBQ" segment where the music was bluesy, the brews were boozy, and the BBQ was oozy. It was so awesome that I forgot to even take pictures! The end of the night found us at the Horse & Plow drinking such amazing beverages as Fuller's 2006 Vintage Ale, among others.

Monday was Memorial Day. Myself, my brother, and some friends lit off a few fireworks to commemorate those who served our country well. We grilled lunch and dinner, amusing ourselves with hammerschlagen and darts between meals.

Tuesday was brew day. Made up 5 gallons of a pseudo-lager clone of a well-known American Pilsner using Kolsch yeast from White Labs. Whenever I'm brewing, I like to have music playing that enhances the mood of the beer in creation. For clone beers, I like to play cover songs. This brew day's play list included Cake covering "War Pigs", R.E.M. covering "Paint It Black", North Carolina Chocolate Drops covering "Hit 'Em Up", NIN covering "Hurt", and Jay Z's "Young Forever".

After brewing, I went down to the Great Lakes Distillery to tour the facility and sample some of their concoctions. I highly recommend visiting this local distillery.

Then I headed to Madison for a couple days. I visited the Delafield Brewhaus, Water Street Brewery, Tyranena, The Great Dane, Capital Brewery, and Ale Asylum. Kapow!

Between breweries, I hiked and hiked and hiked at places including Lapham Peak, the Eagle segment of the Drumlin Glacier Trail, and the city of Madison.

Capital Brewery is actually located in Middleton, which is also the home of the National Mustard Museum. This is a grand attraction where you can gaze at over 5200 types of mustard, 250 of which are available for purchase. After a quick session of acupuncture, I walked down the street to check out this vast display of glorious condiment.

The weekend of June 5th was spent enjoying the World of Beer Festival put on by the Milwaukee Beer Barons at the Schwabenhof Pavilion. Lordy, it was a splendid day with scorching sun early on and heavy rains late in the afternoon. It was a good time had by all.

After a day or so of rest, I'm back at work refreshed and rejuvenated.

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